Yesterday I collected some windfalls from the village orchard, and worked out how to gather some mirabelle plumlets with a picker bag on a pole. Also found a not quite ready eating apple - the rest are cookers. I will be back.
Today I spent time in the garden. Pruned the forsythia (wrong time, but it had put on far too much growth since the post flowering cut and was shading things too much). Trimmed the village hedge where it had grown over the fence, and a bit off the neighbour's shrub (with permission) where that had encroached. Rebuilt the wooden compost container and toppped it up with trimmings and some kitchen waste (also mostly from the garden). Moved the bag the mushroom compost had come in, which now holds the mature compost from the bottom of the plastic bin, and found it occupied by a large frog (that's British large, about 5 inches, legs extended). Then, when pruning the shrub, I moved a paving slab and found a toad crawling away from it (same body size, but shorter legs). I'm going to have to be very careful out there with all these amphibians. The other day I disturbed one under a potato bag. Think I saw another crawling along under the courgette leaves (zucchini). Feast on those slugs, guys! Also trimmed the virginia creeper again. The rate that grows is phenomenal. Matched only by the bramble, which has taken off at last. Neither of them need time lapse photography to show the extension, just a chair and a long afternoon. Weeded a patch where there is going to be a rockery, but where I hope at the moment my erigeron is seeding for next year. This came from my last home, before that from my Mum, and before that from a garden in Northiam, Sussex, laid out by the gardener Christopher Lloyd. Pulled up a lot of willowherb, too late to stop it seeding!

The vinca is back. And the ground ivy.

The cat had made an attempted entry the other day, despite my putting wobbly trellis along the gate top - now strengthened, and it had sprayed the compost bin, by the smell. I sprinkled some lion poo about, and have had no visit since.

Penny